In another ruling, earlier this month, a Druid, known as King Arthur, knocked a hole in the key “trespassory assembly” provisions. The Act criminalises gatherings of more than 20 people, so the group gathering at Stonehenge, including King Arthur, simply broke up into several smaller ones to side-step the law. Today the Act will face another challenge, this time over its provision of new secure training units for children aged 12-14. The High Court will hear claims that draft rules for the “child jails” breach the Government’s obligations under the Children Act 1989 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.But one of most worrying aspects and largely unseen problems with the legislation, according to civil rights groups and lawyers, is that it has enabled police to set bail conditions without reference to a court, and has removed the presumption of bail for those facing a second charge. This has led to protesters being arrested for relatively minor charges, but having their activities and movements severely curtailed on bail conditions enforced by the threat of jail.In Essex, Isla Humphreys was bailed on condition that she did not attend any live export protests or meetings after being arrested at Brightlingsea. In Lancaster, 11 people arrested for obstructing the sheriff in an M65 motorway protest were bailed on condition that they reside at their home addresses – thus banning holidays and visits to family and friends. This “home arrest” imposed in February, was overturned a month later by the High Court as “oppressive”.
But the case has not come to trial and had the group not launched the High Court case, they would still be subject to draconian bail conditions.Mike Schwarz, a leading human rights lawyer, points out that most people subjected to such stringent bail conditions would not have the resources to launch High Court challenges.A hard-line political response to huge poll tax demonstrations and increasingly forceful road protests, the Act has singularly failed to halt mass action, as the highly publicised animal export demonstrations earlier this year have proved. Neither has it forced travellers, gypsies, ravers and others to abandon their lifestyles – although there is evidence that some have been deterred. Steve Staines, of the Friends and Families of Travellers support group, says the Act has forced many travellers to go abroad. For those who remain – particularly for those with children – it has heightened insecurity.What the legislation has achieved is to unite many diverse groups behind a single banner. According to Liz Parratt of Liberty, the civil rights group, it has brought to notice just how difficult it is to claim the “right to protest” that many think is embedded in political tradition.
It has boosted support for a Bill of Rights and swollen the numbers belonging to civil rights and protest groups. Liberty will seek to enforce those rights through the European Court of Human Rights, claiming breaches of right to freedom of expression and assembly, and the right to a private and family life.There were no arrests by Northamptonshire police of the demonstrators who chose to dig up a section of Mr Heseltine’s lawn in protest over open-cast mining. Given the difficulties of unravelling the legislation, the costs and problems of pursuing charges successfully through the courts, and the controversy surrounding the Act’s powers, the approach of the Northamptonshire force may be the most effective solution for everybody.. “For Hebron this is not a good agreement,” says Jamal Shubaki, chief representative here of Yasser Arafat, the morning after the terms for a partial Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank were agreed.
The deal not only allows 400 Israeli settlers to stay in the heart of Hebron, he says, “but gives them a big district under Israeli occupation”. Mr Shubaki, local head of Fatah, the main Palestinian political organisation led by Mr Arafat, says he supports the peace deal as a whole “but in Hebron it will make the situation worse for Palestinians”. Although Palestinians will get control of part of the city, the settlers’ position will be consolidated in the rest. Mr Shubaki threatens that if the lives of ordinary people do not improve, Fatah “may decide not to take part in the elections [to the new Palestinian Council] next year.”
Disagreements over the future of Hebron, capital of the southern West Bank, long held up the signing of a deal. In the nine days of talks Mr Arafat appears to have won only limited concessions on the city from Israel.
“The people were looking for the settlers to be evacuated in this period,” says Mustapha Natshe, mayor of Hebron, noting that the Palestinian delegation to the talks had not yet supplied him with maps showing what is to happen to his city.He will not be pleased when he sees them. Khalil Toufakji, the Palestinian delegation’s map specialist, says a swath of central Hebron, home to a small number of settlers, notorious for their ideological militancy and violence, will remain under full Israeli control. He says he was shocked when the Israelis first showed him a map of the new security zones last week. “It is a good agreement,” insists Mr Toufakji, “But not in Hebron.”The fear of Hebronites is that Sunday’s agreement locks in place a division of their city which will make it more and more like divided Jerusalem.
